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P.W.A. Roming, S.D. Hunsberger, C. Gronwall, J.A. Nousek (PSU), A.A. Breeveld, K.O. Mason (MSSL), UVOT PSU Team, UVOT MSSL Team, UVOT SwRI Team
The UV/Optical Telescope (UVOT), in conjunction with the Burst Alert and X-Ray Telescopes, renders the Swift Gamma-ray Observatory a truly multi-wavelength mission. By utilizing UVOT’s UV and optical broadband filters and grisms, the early UV and optical photons from the afterglow of GRBs are captured; long term observations of these afterglows are also obtained. The UVOT employs a micro-channel plate intensified charged-coupled device detector that records the arrival time of individual photons and provides sub-arcsecond positioning of sources. Some of the top level science goals of the UVOT are to capture the prompt emission of GRBs, rapidly provide sub-arcsecond positions to the ground, provide spectral or photometric redshifts, monitor GRB afterglows, and identify the GRB environment. We discuss the overall design of the instrument and some of the science that can be accomplished with the UVOT. This work is sponsored at Penn State by NASA’s Office of Space Science through contract NAS5-00136, and at MSSL by funding from PPARC.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 36 5
© 2004. The American Astronomical Society.